Toyota losing zeal for quality

My recent experience with Toyota shows that from the top to the
bottom,
the company has lost the zeal for quality which has made it famous.

I bought a brand new 2007 Camry; this car is positioned as a upscale
sedan, yet it comes with a design
defect such that there is a continuous periodic snapping noise from
the console area.
If you are playing a CD, it sounds like a scratch on the CD; if you
are trying to enjoy the quiet
smooth ride, it is as annoying as a dripping tap.
Toyota agree that the noise is there in all Camrys of that year, but
to them it is acceptable and normal.
I have escalated this from the shop floor, through the dealer
management and all
the way up to the management review committee at Toyota corporate.
The end result? Toyota don't care, and it is my problem if I cant
enjoy my
upscale sedan because of a design defect.
The company has gone from obsession with quality to arrogance.
Buyers of Toyota, and especially Camrys, beware.
You are no longer getting what you used to get from this company.

Me too. But in my case I drove the car for about 4 months before this
started. It might have something to do with the ambient temperature,
and the fall weather. In any case the dealer tested 4 or 5 other
camry's on his lot and all of them had the same problem. It was then
that he decided he couldn't fix it, and referred me to Toyota, who do
not deny the existence of this problem.
pgmer6809

You were lucky, another dealer might've torn your dash board, console etc.
apart trying to fix it or appease you. He was honest about it and you're
better off letting it go. Better that, then having the Techs use your
vehicle as a metal lab rat.
wrote:

Sometimes these things happen, and unless you're willing to risk a very sore
neck from being upside down under the dash panel, looking for it and
hopefully finding it, it's evidently very hard to trace.
I had a noise years ago in a '57 Ford sedan that sounded for all the world
like a pair of castanets going "clack clack" which I never did find.
Finally I got so that I didn't hear it any more (much)....sort of like you
tune out a nagging wife.

Hmmm, I had a '64 Galaxie that made a sound like a couple of tin cans
being kicked around. Happened quite regularly, but was impossible to
find, my guess was in the engine somewhere. I think our sounds are
quite similar.

Make sure the dealer documents the noise accurately. TSBs (technical
service bulletins) show up all the time and you can get it fixed even
if the standard warranty just expired. That's why I advocated holding
off on the first production year. At least your rotors haven't warped,
transmission hasn't skip gears and side air bags might deploy
properly.
Toyotas are inexpensive cars built for the masses (Honda Accords are
$1-2K more!). It's the kind of achievement that would make Henry Ford
(with his Model T, as in "T"oyota) proud. It's by no means an "upscale
sedan". The ~$18K model collects more money with installed bells,
whistles and leather seats, but the engineering is there in the ~$18K
range. But really, it's not bad for a cheap midsize car.
On Dec 7, 4:08 pm, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

getting what you used to get from this company.
In a recent edition of Consumers Report, I read where CR has put the V6
Camry on a Not Recommended status because of transmission problems. Toyota
is aware of the problem, but apparently does not have a fix yet.
Honda had problems with their tranmissions some years ago, but stood by
their customers. A recent example -- our parish priest has an 03 Civic
hybrid where the CVT transmission went out at 60k miles; Honda replaced the
transmission no questions or quibbling.

Yeah, Honda seems to treat their customers as members of the family,
even though their automatic transmissions really aren't up to par.
It's easy for me just to recommend a Honda to those who ask, and the
new 08 Malibu and the 08 Caddy CTS, and the.....
Toyota tries to play with harder clutch pack material with the new U-
series transmissions, but it looks like they should have stuck with
their Aisin-Borg Warner venture and use the A-series. The A-series
were dirty from the softer clutch material and shifted like the cheap
transmissions they were, but they were generally bullet proof.

The guide does indicate that. However, the December edition recants and adds
the Camry V6 to the No Longer Recommended List because of the aforesaid
transmission problems. Added to the No Recommended List were the Tundra 4WD
and the AWD Lexus GS. The 4 cyl Camry and hybrid are still recommended.

The "console crickets" have been discussed extensively in the
GreenHybrid d-group see
http://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/search.php?searchid 2544 and
search on "console crickets"
there are a number of do-it-yourself solutions provided and the
dealers have been fixing lots of the TCH for this problem.
My crickets appear only in cold weather (below 35 degrees F) which
seems to be consistent among those complaining. It seems to come
mostly from the area below the heater controls near that center
console box and is exacerbated when I lean my knee against the side of
the console.
I've also noticed a new cricket in the windshield this winter. But
this one is less common and has nothing to do with my leg resting
against it <grin>.
I had a rental car last week (a Buick Lucerne) and it was VERY quiet
compared to the TCH at least in terms of crickets.
Overall I am still rating my TCH high - I've had it since August 2006.
My biggest complaint is/was the crappy Bridgestone tires they put on
some of these cars. Mine we showing the wear bars at 15K and had to be
replaced at 26K because they were practically bald. And Mr. Toyota
(the website for customer support; not the dealer) tried to imply it
was my fault when I complained to them. This is all detailed on the
GreenHybrid site as well and it is also a common complaint/problem.
~j
On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 16:08:13 -0800 (PST), snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

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